Scarborough College students were celebrating success in being selected to represent Scarborough as the area team for volleyball in the prestigious North Yorkshire School Games, which is organised by North Yorkshire Sport and is part of the national Sainsbury’s School Games.
The Sainsbury’s School Games allows students to experience high-level competition in an Olympic-style setting. The school games are acknowledged as being the highest competitive level a student can compete at while at school. With each area holding competitions and selection to represent the area in various sports, the aim is to drive up participation and standards across school sports.
This year, the College has started to offer the world’s second most popular team sport of volleyball to some of its students. It is hoped the interactive and competitive sport of volleyball will engage even more of the school’s students next year and encourage them to maintain a sporting and healthy lifestyle.
The Scarborough College team pushed themselves physically as part of their preparation for the U16 Boys competition. North Riding Eagles National League Coach, Anthony Laffan, picked out Kristain Galea as a key player: ‘Kristain showed great composure. He never looked rushed. The ability in any sport to create time on the ball, allowing you to think about your shot is something only the best of players ever achieve. All the boys played well and when they tactically double blocked, using Fred Langton as the focal point of their net defence, they found they controlled large parts of the game.’
Phil Wilson, games teacher and head of Middle Tier (GCSE) at Scarborough College, said: ‘We are looking forward to seeing this international sport really take off in the school next school year, with both the boys and girls teams competing at local and area levels. It’s a great sport and we are especially looking forward to playing beach volleyball on the Scarborough sands – not something that many schools have the opportunity to get involved with.’
